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Do not judge

What is commonly understood by 'do not judge': refraining from expressing a negative opinion about a person.
What should be understood by 'do not judge': refraining from opposing what should be to what is.

Hidden motivations behind the injunction to refrain from expressing negative opinions about a person

At first glance, 'Do not judge others' may appear as a sign of tolerance and is generally claimed as such.
However, upon closer examination, the motivations driving the emphasis on each person's freedom to think what they want and act as they see fit are generally:

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Avoid having to oppose the group, without having to admit that one is a coward.

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Be able to indulge freely in the game of alliances, in order to obtain power and a more favorable social position.

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Continue to abuse with a clear conscience.

To better explain this concealment of real intentions, let us recall that there are two major death-dealing alliance strategies, which are two sides of the same coin:

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The fundamentalist mode, which consists of claiming to hold an absolute truth, meaning one that cannot be questioned by facts.
This strategy aims to exacerbate the nepotistic mode of functioning 'us against them' at the level of a single, well-identified group.

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The so-called tolerant mode, which consists of elevating 'do not judge' to a supreme value. This allows one to ignore, in the name of tolerance, facts that are disturbing, and especially to reject those who denounce them on the grounds of intolerance.
This strategy aims at a dual objective. On the one hand, to favor integration into multiple groups, enabling one to multiply and vary alliances according to circumstances. On the other hand, to obtain a certain impunity, meaning the ability to continue one's abuses with a clear conscience.

In both cases, it sufficed to place a belief, or a rule (do not judge), above facts, in order to be able to judge on an arbitrary basis (a belief or a rule).

The injunction 'do not judge' therefore appears to us first and foremost as an intolerance of the privileged; to the slogan 'it is forbidden to forbid' from 1968, one could well oppose 'do not judge on the basis of not judging'.
The claim of tolerance ultimately proves to be what distinguishes the privileged elites, whose action consists mainly in defending their privileges.

Nevertheless, when judging, one must carefully choose the criteria:

good criterion

bad criterion

what the person does

what the person says

 

superficial respectability

facts

beliefs
rules

collective interest

 

Hidden motivations behind judgments of what is unacceptable

Shouting loudly that such and such is absolutely unacceptable, and possibly reinforcing this position with a critique of judicial laxity regarding it, is often just a way of resolving one's own cognitive dissonance. More precisely, this cognitive dissonance lies between, on the one hand, the multiple revolting things toward which one does nothing, as well as the numerous little arrangements one makes to improve one's social position through the game of alliances, and on the other hand, the image of a globally moral person one wishes to maintain of oneself. Choosing a subject and gesticulating loudly thus serves, on the one hand, to hide from oneself all the subjects on which one dares not intervene (see the question 'What is an adult?'), and on the other hand to hide all the subjects for which the attitude one adopts is difficult to defend from a moral standpoint (in the sense of the common good).

In such a configuration of life, unfortunately frequent, one tends to establish a separation between, on the one hand, what is less moral than oneself, which one labels unacceptable, and on the other hand, what is more moral than oneself, which one labels idealistic or extreme. It is here that, paradoxically, one often joins the camp of 'do not judge others' on almost all subjects except the one (or the few) against which (which) one has chosen to openly campaign.

Refrain from opposing what should be to what is

As soon as one interposes 'what should be' between oneself and what is, one becomes irresponsible.

Let us recall that adopting the right attitude means applying Epictetus's recommendation: facing a problem, separate what depends on oneself from what does not depend on oneself. Struggle with all one's strength, determination, and intelligence on the part that depends on oneself, and do not worry unnecessarily about the part that does not depend on oneself. Now, as soon as one has interposed 'what should be' between oneself and what is, one considers that the gap between what is and what should be does not depend on oneself.

Here is an example of interposing what should be: 'People should be less materialistic.' Once this judgment is made, one exempts oneself from the necessity of struggling against inequalities, and primarily from putting one's own resources at the service of those in greater need.

To be constructive, 'do not judge' must therefore be understood as: not interposing 'what should be' between oneself and the observed reality.

Stoic morality can be summarized as: one does not choose one's fate, one chooses how to face it. However, Epictetus's formulation remains more pedagogical.

To deepen

Consult the questions:
The myth of listening and good atmosphere
What is Buddhist non-duality?
What must one do to be a good person?
What is an adult?

The article linked below describes and denounces, without formulating the concept, the alliance strategy in so-called tolerant mode:

From eco-responsible, I went to unfrequented

The principle 'observe and do not judge' at the heart of Montessori education corresponds to the same concern of restoring preeminence to facts, of limiting reference to what should be.

What we have described here is a fundamental observation underlying Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), developed by Albert Ellis:
'Ellis's philosophy contains elements of constructivism. Specifically, Ellis maintained that all humans create ideas of how the world is or ought to be.'

 

2022-07-26 17:37:00 Hubert following Cyril's comment Text to be reviewed

• Expliciter le rejet de ne pas juger habituel qui est un appel au jeu des alliances et au manque de courage.
• Le texte actuel ne montre pas que Epictète est l'action qui correspond à la représentation de la non dualité (ne pas opposer ce qui devrait être à ce qui est).

2022-09-12 15:04:03 Hubert   

Texte refondu.

2024-05-01 10:26:08 Cyril Tolerance

« La tolérance n'est pas, comme on le croit trop souvent, l'éclectisme, ni l'indifférence conciliante. Elle consiste non pas à s'interdire de combattre des thèses jugées fausses, mais à s'interdire de les combattre par d'autres moyens que des moyens intellectuels. »
Jean-François Revel

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